Some 6,514 Sudanese families have escaped “intense fighting” between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the city of Qatana and surrounding villages in the White Nile State in southern Sudan, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said yesterday.
The UN agency said the families had been displaced from 18 villages surrounding the city to the Al-Qurashi area in Al-Jazira State, east of the White Nile State.
Intense fighting continues between the Sudanese army and the RSF which controls Qatana city.
READ: Sudanese army advances to central Khartoum from south
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the RSF of committing a “horrific massacre”, killing 433 civilians in the villages of the city of Qatana. There was no comment from the RSF.
The RSF territorial control has been shrinking as the army advances in central Sudan, including Khartoum and El-Jazira states, and in the southern White Nile and North Kordofan states. The RSF remains dominant in four of Darfur’s five states but has not expanded into Sudan’s northern and eastern regions.
In Khartoum State, which consists of three cities, the army controls 90 per cent of Bahri in the north, most of Omdurman in the west and 60 per cent of central Khartoum, where the presidential palace and international airport are located.
Army forces have nearly encircled those strategic sites, while RSF fighters remain entrenched in neighbourhoods in the east and south.
READ: Sudan accuses rebel faction of killing 433 civilians in White Nile State